You may be wondering what has happened to Rymor. Well it’s still going, sort of. I haven’t actually managed my 45mins most days but I have stuck to my commitments in terms of getting my SlingInk Eurofiction entries in, including one on Christmas Eve. There’s another one due in this Wednesday so I’ll probably update you with the stats and do a New Year’s Resolution style re-launch after that.
Just thought I’d let you know.
First week of Rymor. Like Lesamy my blog update has been delayed by the after-effects of handing the latest SlingInk story. Which I did almost exactly on time. i.e. very little time to spare.
It was an interesting week. I managed to do my 45 mins every day apart from Sunday, but then on Saturday I counted time reviewing others’ work. But I came out of the weekend swinging, mostly because I had to with task 6 deadline looming.
So what are the stats?
Well during week 1 proper (thu 4th-wed 10th Dec) I spent 470mins writing and wrote 4,935words. Almost 5 hours (293mins) of which was in the last two days. Overall (I started recording how much I was writing on 1st Dec) I’ve written for 605 mins and put down 7179 words. Of that roughly 3/4 has been on my Slingink story (458mins, 5760words)
Week 2 is looking less impressive so far. I’ve not written anything, aside these two blog posts, since Wed night.
as in Yet-Another-Made-Up-Word.
Rymor is my new project in the spirit of Lesamy. It’s paul-speak for “Write More”. I know I’ve tried in the past to come up with a consistent writing regime. I’ve had some success with it actually. Even with things being more sporadic the discipline of needing a story delivered every two weeks (for Slingink‘s Eurofiction competition) has kept me honest, more importantly it has kept me finishing things. (I’m beginning to think 90% of writing is holding your nerve long enough to finish the first draft.)
But even with all that I wanted to bring some of the rigour and consistency, some of the discipline and frankly, the results of Lesamy to my writing. Now I know there’s only so far I can take it. With Lesamy if you burn more calories than you eat you will lose weight. All you have to do is find a diet and exercise regimen that achieves that and stick to it. The process is simple the hard part is in keeping going. I’ve proved I can do that. With writing there’s something else. You not only have to keep going, be consistent, work hard, you also have to find and express good ideas, you have to be smart and, depending on subject matter, it helps to be funny. There’s no simple formula to learn to be smarter and funnier.
So I know that there’s only so far hard work will get you. But on the other hand, the work is an enabler. If you have any talent (and I’m beginning to believe maybe I have a modest amount) then it takes work to make the most of it. In a pep talk email for NaNoWriMo Philip Pullman said:
The question authors get asked more than any other is “Where do you get your ideas from?” … What I usually say is “I don’t know where they come from, but I know where they come to: they come to my desk, and if I’m not there, they go away again.”
So to the specifics. Rymor is simple. I will write for at least 45mins or 750words a day, every day. No varying it according to what day of the week it is. No days off. Every day is regular and consistent and habit-forming and that’s what I need.
Now when I say “no days off” I mean days when I’m at home. If I’m visiting friends or out all night straight from work then that’s ok. The main point is to not have a complicated weekly schedule.
Of course there will be days when I will work more than that – immediately before a deadline I imagine. That’s ok too – but Rymor defines the minimum.
The other part of Rymor, like Lesamy, is regular measurement. So every Wednesday from now on I’ll be posting a weekly word-count. I’ve worked out ways to count when I do a revision of an existing draft rather than writing from scratch. I’ve even done a basic spreadsheet. The idea is to see how much I’ve done and what I’ve done it on. I’ll probably have at least two or three things on the go at any one time. Lots of what I write, even now, is sort of brain-storming, mental clearing the throat stuff that never makes it directly into my stories but which seems to be necessary. Keeping track of all this I hope will be not only encouraging but will allow me to see where I’m spending my time and alternate so I don’t get bored or disillusioned with any one thing.
Anyway that’s the theory. I’ll let you know how I get on next Wednesday.